The Management of Information Systems in Justice Delivery Systems: Case Study of the Judicial Service of Ghana

Abstract

The Judicial Service as the third arm of the government of Ghana is the body mandated by the country’s constitution to dispense justice in the country, in a manner that peace, tranquility and stability prevail to ensure socio-economic development. In court operations in the country however, effectiveness, efficiency and speed of justice delivery are often reported to be very low.The main source of this problem as reported in most judicial services annual reports show that the problems are largely related to poor technological support for the judicial system. The main purpose of this study was to find out how poor technological support for the judicial service affects its performance in justice delivery, what technological support will be required to ensure the delivery of justice effectively, efficiently and without unnecessary delays. The study identified the best information technological support that the High Courts of the judicial services in Accra will require to enable them performs as required. The study used both interviews and structured questionnaire to elicit data from staff, lawyers and clients of the courts. The results show that there is urgent need for the installation of information systems in the courts of Ghana and that a number of strategic planning, technological, operational, and user issues need to be addressed as harbinger for any electronic court implementation. This study identified four main types of information systems’ applications that the Judicial Service of Ghana must focus on. They are the Electronic Filing System (EFS), the Case Management System (CMS), the Court Recording and Transcribing (CRT) and the Queue Management System (QMS). The result also demonstrates a significant deficiency in the performance of court records management and integration with other agencies.